The present invention provides a mechanical self-leveling camera assembly especially useful for remote positioning from a deployment location.
Push-rod cameras are frequently used for taking photographs in an environment that is generally inaccessible to a photographer. For example, push-rod cameras are often used for taking photographs in a sewer pipe. In a typical push-rod camera, the camera is lowered into the site where photography is desired on a cable from a reel. As the camera is lowered and more cable is fed in, the camera head slowly rotates, usually in the form of continual rotation. Of course, during use, the camera head is within the site and not accessible for manual manipulation. Thus, if the camera head becomes skewed or rotated, it is not possible to access and manually turn the camera head to the correct position. As a result, the pictures taken by a standard push-rod camera are often at skewed orientations. It is also noted that the almost continual rotation of the camera may cause connecting wires extending from the camera to become entangled.
Electronic signal processing of an image signal produced with a push-rod camera is often used to electronically xe2x80x9crightxe2x80x9d the image. Electronics components control the position, focus, and iris of the camera. Using the electronics components, the camera may be controlled and the video image viewed from a remote location. Cameras of this type can be costly, however, involving the costs of the electronics as well as the cable running from the camera site to the remote site.
Cameras have also been developed to level the camera, and thus right the image, without the use of electronics. For example, aerial cameras have used self-leveling mechanisms involving a system of suspension cables. Unfortunately, these suspension-system self-leveling mechanisms are not amenable to, for example, lowering in an enclosed area where 360 degrees of free rotation is desirable.
The present invention relates to a camera assembly, and more particularly, to a mechanical self-leveling camera assembly that maintains angular orientation when positioned remotely from a deployment location. In one embodiment, the self-leveling camera may be used to produce an image in angular orientation while the camera is suspended via cable into a sewer pipe.
The self-leveling camera assembly includes a camera, a leveling weight operably attached to the camera, a camera housing enclosing the camera and the weight, and an elongate rod attached to the housing for positioning the camera remotely from a deployment location. The weight and camera are freely rotatable within the housing about an axis, the leveling weight having a center of mass displaced from the axis such that gravitational forces maintain the rotational orientation of the camera independent of the orientation of the housing.
Thus, the present invention uses mechanical means to maintain the camera in an angular orientation. Further, it does so without requiring any wires or cables other than those typically used for standard-made remote deployment camera operation.
The self-leveling camera assembly may further include a bearing positioned between the camera body and the camera housing, where the camera includes a camera body and a camera lens. A slip ring is attached to the bearing, the slip ring being configured for receiving at least one wire, for example, a power, video, or ground wire, the at least one wire extending through the slip ring along the elongate rod.
A light source is provided with an embodiment of the self-leveling camera assembly such that the camera may be used in near zero-ambient light conditions where not even low-light cameras function properly. The light source may include a light-emitting diode ring received in a light window of the camera housing.
A further embodiment of the invention provides a self-leveling camera assembly kit for replacing the camera head, including the camera body and camera lens, of a camera. The self-leveling camera assembly kit is designed to maintain the angular orientation of the camera when the camera is positioned remotely from a deployment location. The self-leveling camera assembly kit includes a camera body, a camera lens, and a leveling weight. The camera body, camera lens and weight are freely rotatable within a camera housing about an axis, the leveling weight having a center of mass displaced from the axis such that gravitational forces maintain the rotational orientation of the camera body independent of the orientation of the housing. Thus, the owner of a standard-made camera or a camera without a self-leveling head or with a less than optimal self-leveling head may replace the camera head without replacing the entire camera.